Do you like building workflows faster than your friends? Interested in flexing your Alteryx muscle in front of a roaring crowd? If you answered YES, you might just have what it takes to be our next Grand Prix Champion in London! Here’s how you can compete in the upcoming event: 2019 Grand Prix Europe Qualification and Timeline * Register for the Grand Prix by Friday, 30 August * Each racer will compete in ONE 60-minute WebEx session to complete workflows judged by Alteryx Grand Prix referees. These will take place the week of 2 September (see times below)*. * Successful workflow completion earns you points, with the top racers advancing to the finals at Inspire Europe * You must be able to access Dropbox and WebEx during the preliminary round * The 2019 Alteryx Grand Prix Europe will take place Thursday, 17 October Additional information along with Grand Prix Europe 2019 Rules can be found here: Registration for the 2019 Grand Prix Europe is now open If you're looking for opportunities to flex your muscles to prepare for the qualifying rounds -- take a stab at completing one (or all!) of our former Grand Prix challenges! Grand Prix Challenge Index Grand Prix ChallengeLevel of DifficultyMain Subject2019 Grand Prix US - Heat 1IntermediatePredictive2019 Grand Prix US - Heat 2IntermediateData Analysis2019 Grand Prix US - Heat 3IntermediateSpatialAlteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race1, L1)IntermediateData PreparationAlteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race 1, L2)BeginnerData AnalysisAlteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race 2, L1)IntermediateData PreparationAlteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race 2, L2)IntermediateSpatialInspire Europe '16 Grand Prix (L1)IntermediateData AnalysisInspire Europe '16 Grand Prix (L2)IntermediateData AnalysisInspire Europe '16 Grand Prix (L3)IntermediateData Analysis2013 Alteryx Grand Prix (L1)IntermediateData AnalysisUS Grand Prix Lap 1 - Data PrepBeginnerData PreparationUS Grand Prix Lap 2 - Employee RetentionIntermediatePredictiveUS Grand Prix Lap 3 - Where to Host an EventIntermediateSpatialUS Grand Prix Prelims - NASA Location AnalysisIntermediateSpatialUS Grand Prix Prelims - Email DatesIntermediateData CleansingEMEA Grand Prix Prelims - Time SeriesIntermediatePredictive Are there other Alteryx skills you’d like to put into practice as you prepare for the Grand Prix? We’ve got you covered. You'll find OVER 174 Weekly Challenges on Alteryx Academy to beef up your training regimen. Last but not least, I’d love to hear from some of our former competitors and champions on how they approached preparing for the Grand Prix! @Kenda, @Garrett, @PhilipMannering, @cplewis90, @alv728, @BenMoss, @mattagee, @NicoleJohnson, @TeinSing, @JasonQu, @JonMcMillin, @kat, @yalmar_m, @Natasha -- As an experienced Alteryx competitor... How did you get ready for the Grand Prix? Did you have a training regimen? Do you have any recommendations or tips to share with new competitors?

@Garrett Guilty. That's basically what it comes down to though. Cheating by putting in lots of hard work and preparation.

PRACTICE?!?!?!?! That's cheating. Teaching other people to use Alteryx and using Alteryx to solve client use cases is the best preparation.

2019 Grand Prix Europe & Challenge Index

LeahK

Do you like building workflows faster than your friends? Interested in flexing your Alteryx muscle in front of a roaring crowd? If you answered YES, you might just have what it takes to be our next Grand Prix Champion in London!

Here’s how you can compete in the upcoming event:

2019 Grand Prix Europe Qualification and Timeline

Register for the Grand Prix by Friday, 30 August
Each racer will compete in ONE 60-minute WebEx session to complete workflows judged by Alteryx Grand Prix referees. These will take place the week of 2 September (see times below)*.

Successful workflow completion earns you points, with the top racers advancing to the finals at Inspire Europe
You must be able to access Dropbox and WebEx during the preliminary round

The 2019 Alteryx Grand Prix Europe will take place Thursday, 17 October

Additional information along with Grand Prix Europe 2019 Rules can be found here: Registration for the 2019 Grand Prix Europe is now open

2019 Grand Prix Europe INDEX cover.png If you're looking for opportunities to flex your muscles to prepare for the qualifying rounds -- take a stab at completing one (or all!) of our former Grand Prix challenges!

Grand Prix Challenge Index

Grand Prix Challenge	Level of Difficulty	Main Subject
2019 Grand Prix US - Heat 1	Intermediate	Predictive
2019 Grand Prix US - Heat 2	Intermediate	Data Analysis
2019 Grand Prix US - Heat 3	Intermediate	Spatial
Alteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race1, L1)	Intermediate	Data Preparation
Alteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race 1, L2)	Beginner	Data Analysis
Alteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race 2, L1)	Intermediate	Data Preparation
Alteryx '16 Grand Prix (Race 2, L2)	Intermediate	Spatial
Inspire Europe '16 Grand Prix (L1)	Intermediate	Data Analysis
Inspire Europe '16 Grand Prix (L2)	Intermediate	Data Analysis
Inspire Europe '16 Grand Prix (L3)	Intermediate	Data Analysis
2013 Alteryx Grand Prix (L1)	Intermediate	Data Analysis
US Grand Prix Lap 1 - Data Prep	Beginner	Data Preparation
US Grand Prix Lap 2 - Employee Retention	Intermediate	Predictive
US Grand Prix Lap 3 - Where to Host an Event	Intermediate	Spatial
US Grand Prix Prelims - NASA Location Analysis	Intermediate	Spatial
US Grand Prix Prelims - Email Dates	Intermediate	Data Cleansing
EMEA Grand Prix Prelims - Time Series	Intermediate	Predictive

Are there other Alteryx skills you’d like to put into practice as you prepare for the Grand Prix? We’ve got you covered. You'll find OVER 174 Weekly Challenges on Alteryx Academy to beef up your training regimen.

Last but not least, I’d love to hear from some of our former competitors and champions on how they approached preparing for the Grand Prix!

@Kenda, @Garrett, @PhilipMannering, @cplewis90, @alv728, @BenMoss, @mattagee, @NicoleJohnson, @TeinSing, @JasonQu, @JonMcMillin, @kat, @yalmar_m, @Natasha -- As an experienced Alteryx competitor...

How did you get ready for the Grand Prix? Did you have a training regimen? Do you have any recommendations or tips to share with new competitors?

Fun

Contests

London 2019

Accepted answers

All comments

patrick_digan

I've heard that the key to winning is using the vertical layout? Can you comment @jarrod ?

#TeamVertical

cplewis90

I got ready for the Grand Prix qualifiers through the weekly challenges and also having both the core and advanced certifications. Having those two certifications pushes you to learn spatial and predictive tools. My training regimen was just looking over tools in spatial and predictive tools to make sure I understood what options each one had and looking through one tool examples if tools. My recommendation and tips is to remember in the prelims every problem can be solved quickly. They are not complicated and if you think it is super complicated break it down into smaller steps to solve as that makes it easier to digest. My other tip would be to read the instructions fully and don't start with any part of the workflow until you read all the instructions (watch the Grand Prix video to see this in action). One final tip, remember to relax and have fun as you are solving these problems. If you get to be up on stage it will be a highlight of the conference for sure. Congrats to all the past contestants and winners and to all the future contestants good luck!

cplewis90

@patrick_digan I have to say I am #TeamHorizontal for sure, but then again I did not emerge victorious so you may be onto something.

jarrod

@patrick_digan yes! vertical > horizontal for many reasons:

1) more people have won the Grand Prix using Vertical (just ignore the historical bias in the data though) 🙂

2) Left is left and right is right.

3) true is left and False is righ

4) Source and universe are in the proper location as well

5) scroll wheels go up and down (i know, sometimes you can roll left/right, but not all can without a hot key)

6) yes, we read left to right, but we also read top to bottom

7) vertical is easier on the eyes

I'm sure there are more reasons, but these are off the top of my head 🙂

BenMoss

To me it's all about exposing yourself to as many different business problems as possible, which will expose you too a whole load of different methodologies for configuring those 200+ tools that exist in the product!

Fortunately my work is quite varied as a consultant, but if you find yourself tackling the same problems over and over, that's when the weekly challenges become super useful!

If you make it to the final, my tip is drink wine.

Grand Prix Europe 2017 = a lot of wine consumed = win

Grand Prix US 2018 = sober = loss

TeinSing

Go thru weekly challenges(focus on predictive & Spatial) & past Grand Prix is for sure.
Most important is get ready for the stage!!

Kenda

@jarrod @patrick_digan Horizontal was my demise!

But I agree with much of what others have said. Go through those weekly challenges and spend a little bit of time at least familiarizing yourself with how some tools work that you don't typically use. Practice speeding things up a little bit by using shortcuts like Ctrl + R.

philipmannering

I actually used a standing desk for a bit before the Grand Prix to get used to using my computer standing up... Dunno if that helped. Practicing a ridiculous amount was probably the main basis for success.

Natasha's advice to me was get a good pit crew, which I did with Ben 'the Boss' Moss.

NicoleJohnson

@jarrod & @patrick_digan, whilst trolling the rest of of us #TeamHorizontal folks, do make a good point... the best way to train is to be comfortable with what you're going to be asked to do up there. Keep in mind that you will NOT be asked to solve an impossible problem... The goal is to have everyone on stage be able to solve it in a reasonable amount of time, with nail-biting photo finishes even better! (I can attest to the positive benefits of adrenaline in this exact scenario haha - a countdown clock can be an incredible motivator!).

If I were to prepare a Rocky-esque training regimen for the next Grand Prix, I think it would have 3 elements:

1. Weekly Challenges (in case you haven't yet picked up on this hint from literally every other response to this question so far). If you haven't gone through as many Weekly Challenges as humanly possible before the Grand Prix, you're missing out on a key training resource. For me personally, I actually didn't spend a lot of time practicing before the Grand Prix - @Garrett , I'm with you on this one: just wing it!! - but in the dismal Round 2 that I didn't finish, it was absolutely affected by a Predictive training I had taken earlier in the day. I was trying to copy exactly what I'd learned that morning instead of thinking through what the problem was actually asking, and because I reacted robotically instead of critically thinking through it, I ended up trying to solve the wrong thing. You can actually overtrain if you're too focused on memorizing every little thing. What's far more important is that you know how to pause, think through what the problem is asking you to do, go find the answer if you aren't quite sure, and then methodically tackle it one element at a time. a.k.a. READ THE QUESTION.

2. Get used to the physical environment you'll be in on stage, particularly if you are used to working in a quiet home office. Try solving a few Weekly Challenges in a noisy and crowded location with headphones on (a good playlist is excellent motivation - I can still recall which songs on my playlist got me amped up on stage, and at one point during the Grand Prix, I even remember singing along while I was solving). @BenMoss is totally right about having one of your favorite beverages to help with the nerves - a little liquid courage goes a long way. (Just keep your beer a little farther away from your keyboard than I did on stage... Oops.) Try out the standing desk like @PhilipMannering, get used to working on laptops & monitors that are not your own, and practice shortcuts like @Kenda recommends to speed up your game - there are some pretty sweet features now with things like Cache & Run that could give you that 1 or 2 second advantage. Put a giant clock counting down in front of you. Ignore everyone as they walk by your table in Starbucks and wonder what on earth you are doing while your buddy stands behind you waving a checkered flag... the more random physical elements you can introduce to your practice routine ahead of time, the less they will fluster you on stage.

3. Introduce unexpected challenges to your problem solving practice to get used to those curve-balls - try building an entire workflow without hitting the Run button until you've added all the tools to solve it, so that you get used to thinking about your whole end-to-end solution... or build a workflow without using the most obvious tools, such as coming up with aggregated amounts without using a Summarize tool. These might not be things that actually come up during the Grand Prix, but they DO help you learn to react & adapt to unexpected situations, and to think through several ways to solve the same problem. This can be super helpful when you are blanking out on stage on something that might seem like it should be obvious... if you're used to solving things in several different ways, you'll be far less likely to suffer from Solver's Block.

Most important advice I can offer, however, is to HAVE FUN. Don't overthink it - you're up there on stage for a reason, and it's because you're a badass analytics machine. So get out there and show 'em how it's done!!

Cheers - and good luck!!!

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